1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to assembly and welding machines. More particularly, this invention relates to assembly and welding machines having multiple nests each for manual insertion of a part into a fixture for subsequent assembly and/or automatic welding.
2. Description of the Background Art
Presently, there exist many types of assembly and welding machines having a next for receiving a part in a fixture or "jig" to securely retain the part in a properly oriented position. The part is then ready to be operated on (e.g. drilling, welding) and/or assembled with another part.
Production machines typically include multiple nests each containing a fixture to receive a part. A great number of these multiple nested machines comprise a circular design in which the nests are positioned about the periphery of a rotatable platen. An operator station is provided for the manual insertion and removal of the parts from the fixtures. A plurality of single function, such as drill presses and assembly and welding equipment, is positioned about the periphery of the rotatable platen to sequentially perform the desired operation(s) on the part as the part is indexed through its circular cycle.
Typically, due to the general nature of such circular type machines, it may become necessary to position multiple operator stations about the periphery of the machine such that different operators could manually perform different operations on the part as the parts travel through their cycle. Indeed, the general design of such machines are not readily adaptable to robotics performing a single task rapidly or multiple tasks. Consequently, the advantages of utilizing robotics is compromised when attempting to adapt robotics to presently existing assembly and welding machines. Furthermore, when such adaptation is attempted, the safety of the machine is usually also compromised to the detriment of the station operator.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus and method which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art devices and provides an advancement of the assembly and welding machine art.
Another object of this invention is to provide an assembly/welding machine having multiple nests accessible at a single operator station allowing a part to be mounted in a fixture in each nest for subsequent assembly and/or welding.
Another object of this invention is to provide an assembly/welding machine including robotics for performing the desired operation(s) on the part mounted within a fixture.
Another object of this invention is to provide an assembly/welding machine including a transparent cage positioned about the various components thereof to prevent injury to the operator during use.
Another object of this invention is to provide an assembly/welding machine having a pair of parallel-disposed nests which are sequentially operated allowing an operator to manually insert a part into one nest while the part in the other nest is being operated on by the robotics.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be obtained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.